A squeeze play is an aggressive move where a player makes a reraise when there’s already a raise and one or more calls. The squeeze play usually shows a lot of strength to the other opponents and it can be made for a number of reasons, including:

• Squeeze by value: the player has a strong hand and wants to increase the size of the pot while playing as the aggressor. Remember, playing as the aggressor is a big advantage and one of the main pillars of being profitable in poker (we’ll go in more depth about the lucrative principals of poker later in the course).
• Bluff squeeze: the player has a weaker hand (perhaps a drawing hand, or semi-bluff type of hand) and wants to take down the pot right there by making the opponents fold. The main motivation of this play as a bluff is to pick up what it’s called “dead money”. In these situations, you have one or more players that only called an initial bet, meaning that they probably do not have a premium hand (if not, they would’ve reraised themselves in the first place), so if your bluff passes through the initial raiser, it’ll probably pass through the callers also and the squeeze player will pick the extra chips.

Note, sluff squeezes are a very profitable play if you pick the right spots to do so. However, keep in mind that you need to understand how your opponents play in order to make an effective move. For example, if you want to bluff squeeze a “calling station” (a player who does not like to fold), you will be in trouble because you will get called, having to play an inflated pot with a weaker hand. So, always pay attention to your opponents and the appropriate time to make a move.